I recently had the chance to chat with Balint Csongor, one of the singers for Hungarian metal band Subscribe. We discussed his love of Queen and Rage Against The Machine as well as working on Internet TV shows, the music scene in Hungary, the perils of recording an album in a band mate’s flat, and much more.
Profesor Ricardo: So how did Subscribe come together?
Balint Csongor: We started as a typical collaboration of high school rock star wannabes. Six classmates who decided to make some noise with drums and guitars, which they had never even touched before. And a month later we had their first show in the school’s refectory. It was the January of 1999 and we still have the same line-up; no member changes. The only exception is our keyboard player who joined us five years ago.
PR: What albums or bands inspired you to become a musician?
BC: My first important rock influence was Queen’s Innuendo album. It came out in 1991 and I was nine years old at that time. Queen made a huge impact on my musical taste, especially their early works. No one can mix musical styles, moods and tempo as brilliantly as they did in the mid 70’s. I think this influence can be recognized in our music as well. Later on Rage Against The Machine, Downset, Faith No More and Beastie Boys came in and changed my life.
PR: What is the music scene like in Hungary? How do you guys“fit in”?
BC: It’s almost the same like anywhere else. We have lots of bands here from all kinds of genres especially in Budapest. We have a few pretty cool venues with concerts almost every evening. Bands are coming and going but we are still around after 12 years and I can say we are quite big here. The way I see that’s because we didn’t have member changes at all, and we have always tried to walk our own path. Of course actual musical trends always had a certain impact on us and there was a plenty of them in the past 12 years since we’ve been around. You can hear it from album to album, but they are never determining.
PR: You have been working for Hungarian music TV on the Internet for a while now. Is it safe to say that you are the ‘go-to’ guy in Hungarian metal?
BC: But of course! As the scene is not too big, I know almost everyone here. The TV show we started on the Internet is called Kettonegy. The desire of the program is to consciously break with the legacy of boring topics and questions featured by classic TV rock shows. Therefore, besides covering all important information about bands, our prime objective is to show their everyday lives and also their lifeblood backstage parties. Since we started it five years ago we managed to interview all the great Hungarian bands and of course bands with worldwide fame who had shows in Hungary or somewhere nearby.
PR: Bookmarks is your third album. Tell us about the writing and recording process you went through in making it.
BC: For this album we decided to write and record an album in only five months. Looking back it was a very hard decision but we made it and the result speaks for itself. We started the writing process November 2010 in our rehearsal room, which is cold and stinky especially when you toast twenty paninis a day in a room which has no windows at all. After these horrible and useless months we decided to move to our guitarist Atish’s flat to make the demos. It was ten days before we entered the studio so we spent ten days there all together. We recorded the vocals in the bedroom, the bass was in the kitchen and the guitars and keyboards were in the living room. This way we could finally finish all of the songs. Right after this we moved into the studio where Atish works. It’s called SuperSize Recording Studio. It’s a very special studio with with plenty of bedrooms, a living-room and a kitchen so we didn’t leave the house until we finished the record. I really enjoyed that time.
PR: You have formed the band Guilty Parties as a tribute to Rage Against The Machine. How did that come about?
BC: When Rage broke up in 2000 we decided to make a tribute band since we are big fans of them. After a few months Sziget festival invited us as we were the only Hungarian RATM tribute band. It was our first show for the tribute and people just loved it so we decided to carry on. That time we couldn’t book too many shows for Subscribe. But with the tribute band we could get to almost every venue in the country so we decided to support ourselves. I mean we opened for Guilty parties with Subscribe and it really worked. Nowadays we only have a few tribute shows in Hungary and in other European countries as well. I think it’s definitely worth checking it on Youtube.
PR: Do you have any plans to expand outside of Europe in 2012?
BC: We are planning to go back to Finland and hopefully to the UK for a few shows and we will surely visit Slovenia and Romania as well.
PR: Finish this sentence: The best reason to go to a Subscribe show is …
BC: …the experience of passing through real moments, not just a performance.
RK: Thank you, Balint!
Catch episodes of Kettonegy, Hungary’s premier internet music show here: kettonegy.blog.hu
See Subscribe bust out some awesome Rage Against The Machine as Guilty Parties here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UuAJTeHCOg
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